In 1798, John Adams wrote in a letter to the Massachusetts Militia that 'Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.'
He was right. That concept has taken on different forms throughout the years, but it rings true.
In recent years, it's best described through The Shopping Cart Theory. If you're unfamiliar with that, it's described as the 'ultimate litmus test' for whether or not someone is capable of self-governance:
To return the shopping cart is an easy, convenient task and one we all recognize as the correct, appropriate thing to do. To return the shopping cart is objectively right. There are no situations other than dire emergencies in which a person is not able to return their cart. Simultaneously, it is not illegal to abandon your shopping cart. Therefore, the shopping cart presents itself as the apex example of whether a person will do what is right without being forced to do it.
Somewhere along the way, we've lost that ability to self-govern. Why? Well, the reasons are varied and complex and far too numerous to dive into here. But I can see it -- we call can see it -- just by looking around.
It's why 'body positivity' and 'fat phobia' are a thing, why abortion on demand is the Democratic Party's major platform, and why student loan forgiveness is something Joe Biden brags about. The bad things that happen to us are always someone else's fault and/or responsibility.
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So it's no surprise an ABC News and Dispatch editor absolutely fails the shopping cart test.
Written by someone (most likely a man) who has never had two babies at the grocery store in the summer. You can’t carry both and push the cart. You can’t leave them in the car and return the cart. https://t.co/iVyl8h0jpb
— Sarah Isgur (@whignewtons) September 10, 2024
Yes, actually you can.
Speaks volumes about not only our society, but the state of our media, too, doesn't it?
I am a woman, who raised three kids, and managed to always put her shopping cart back. Because it's the right thing to do.
And not better in the winter or the dark. You leaving your two children in a car in a parking lot while you are too far away to get back if someone tries to steal the car? Nope. Moms have a totally different frame of reference here.
— Sarah Isgur (@whignewtons) September 10, 2024
This is illogical for several reasons: she had to retrieve the cart either with her children in tow or with the children in the car. No cart return is that far from a car that leaving the children for a moment is putting them in any sort of danger.
It's also insulting to say moms -- I am one -- have a 'different frame of reference' here, and to imply those of us who put our carts back somehow have misaligned priorities. As if we'd put our children at risk walking a shopping cart back. Where is she shopping? The middle of the desert? There are ample cart returns -- and you can always park next to one -- so it shouldn't take you more than 20 seconds to return a shopping cart.
You walked with your kids to get the cart. You pushed the cart around the store with your kids. It's only when the action confers no future benefit (returning the cart), that the same exact actions suddenly appear to you to be impossible.
— only here for directions away from here (@thebitterlesson) September 10, 2024
You are exactly who the meme is about.
There are bigger implications here beyond a shopping cart. The notion that certain behaviors -- once no longer beneficial to us personally -- are suddenly impossible applies to so much more. See what I said above.
Thankfully, few people bought her line of reasoning:
How did you GET the cart? Abandon the babies in the car to grab the cart?
— Lady Demosthenes (@LadyDemosthenes) September 10, 2024
Or take the children with her?
I had 5 children in 6 years. I have taken all 5 of them shopping with me many times, especially when they were very young. I have literally always returned my cart. Stop using motherhood as an excuse for your laziness.
— CCP IS ASSHOE (@CCPISASSH0E) September 10, 2024
And as an excuse for her sexism (notice she blames men for The Shopping Cart theory).
Everyone has an excuse for why their specific reason for contributing to the Tragedy of the Commons is right and just and why they’re not like all of these other people who are nibbling away at the edges of the societal structure. No one is the bad guy in the tale as they tell it https://t.co/V6F3kMhe50
— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) September 10, 2024
Of course.
No one is a bad guy in their own tales.
This is absurd. Returning a cart takes 30 seconds, tops. And yes, I’ve done this with two “babies”. In Florida. In the summer. “Only a man…” lol https://t.co/fzd40FX5bS
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) September 10, 2024
It's absolutely absurd.
But it is reflective of where we are as a society. The rules apply to other people, not to me, and for these reasons that make me a both morally superior and a victim of sexism at the same time. It is part of the breakdown of the social fabric -- a breakdown intentionally designed and intentionally disastrous.
Returning to such a mentality of self-governance will require a major course correction and reset of public thinking. Do we have it in us?
It doesn't appear that we do.
